Description
Our Instant Pot Ribs recipe is the easiest way to make ribs EVER! Fall-off-the-bone ribs ready in a fraction of the time!
Ingredients
Scale
Rib Rub:
- 1 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt
- 2 1/2 tablespoons smoked paprika
- 2 1/2 tablespoons lemon pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1 tablespoon smoked garlic powder
- 1/2 tablespoon onion powder
- 1/2 tablespoon ground black pepper
Instant Pot Ribs
- (2) full rack of baby back ribs (approx. 3lbs each)
- 1–2 tablespoons liquid smoke, more if needed to cover
- 1–2 tablespoons worcestershire sauce, more if needed to cover
- 1/2 cup yellow mustard, more if needed to cover
- 2 cans Olipop Dr. Goodwin OR Dr. Pepper
- approx. 1 cup of your favorite BBQ Sauce (homemade bbq sauce or store-bought)
Instructions
- Prep Dry Rub: Combine all the dry rub ingredients in a small bowl.
- Prep Ribs: Cut the rack of ribs in half and if the ribs have a membrane, pull to remove it. Place ribs on a baking sheet. Pour a little liquid smoke, one half section of ribs at a time, and rub all over to thinly coat. Repeat with worcestershire sauce and yellow mustard (use enough to leave a good coating on the ribs using more than listed, if necessary). Take the dry rub and rub all over each section.
- Instant Pot: Add the Dr. Goodwin (or Dr. Pepper) to the Instant Pot. Place the trivet inside. Set ribs on top of the trivet so the ribs are vertical.
- Cook Ribs: Secure the lid to the Instant Pot on top. Cook on High Pressure for 24 minutes (add 2-3 minutes if the ribs are bigger than normal). Let Instant Pot naturally release for 5 minutes and then manually release according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
- Barbecue Sauce + Finish: Once ribs come out of the Instant Pot, place them on a cookie sheet (meat side up), brush with your favorite BBQ sauce and then broil on high for 4-5 minutes – or until sauce has started to just barely caramelize (watch carefully as oven temps will vary).
- Serve immediately and enjoy!
Notes
- Spare Ribs: You can actually use spare ribs, if you want; they aren’t as good (in my opinion), but they definitely still work. Spare ribs tend to be bigger than baby back ribs, so I would suggest increasing the cook time by 3 minutes.
- Finish on Grill: Preheat your outdoor grill to 300 degrees F. While that heats remove ribs from Instant Pot and place on a sheet pan, meat side up. Brush with your favorite BBQ sauce to coat. Place on hot grill grates for 3 minutes per side or under your oven broiler (set to High) for 2-3 minutes per side.
- Frozen: You can cook ribs from frozen, just ensure they are fully prepped beforehand (rub with liquid smoke, mustard, and dry rub + cut into half racks) and then cook for an additional 10 minutes in the pressure cooker.
- Don’t want to use Dr. Pepper/Olipop? you can simply replace with 1 cup chicken broth and 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar.
- Testing – What We Learned: One thing we tested was adding sauce to only half of the ribs before they went under the broiler – they were honestly good either way! If you are *not* saucing your ribs, then you might want to leave them under the broiler a bit longer. But both work well, it’s just personal preference whether you like the sauce or not (personally, I like the sauciness better!).
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 6 oz
- Calories: 967
- Sugar: 37.7 g
- Sodium: 2257.5 mg
- Fat: 52.7 g
- Carbohydrates: 48.6 g
- Fiber: 2.7 g
- Protein: 75.1 g
- Cholesterol: 252.3 mg